Azeem Rafiq angry and staggered despite Middlesex chair’s apology for comments

Azeem Rafiq says there is “a demographic of county chairs that don’t see the problem” of discrimination within cricket.

Middlesex chair Mike O’Farrell issued an apology on Tuesday afternoon after comments he made to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee were criticised by Rafiq and others.

Rafiq, who gave harrowing evidence to the same committee in November about the racial abuse he suffered at Yorkshire, said he was staggered by the remarks by O’Farrell, who appeared to offer generalisations about the reasons why individuals from the Afro-Caribbean and South Asian communities drifted away from the sport, and suggested counties did not get enough credit for the work they do.

Rafiq also took issue with Hampshire chair Rod Bransgrove’s claim that his county was “overachieving in some areas” on equality, diversity and inclusion.

“It just shows what a long way we’ve got to go,” Rafiq told Sky Sports News.

“These people have come to a select committee and said they think that they’re overachieving, that the counties don’t get enough credit. (I’m) pretty angry.

“I think it shows that maybe the problem lies with the counties a lot more than the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board). You’ve got a demographic of county chairs that don’t see the problem.

“I found it quite staggering to hear that one of the chairs felt that they were actually overachieving in this space.

“The way (new Yorkshire chair) Lord Patel spoke came from someone who not only has suffered, but gets it, and there’s a massive willingness to confront the issue.

“Whereas what I heard from the other (county chairs) was ‘we’re great, look at us, we do so many things in the community’. And this was exactly the same language that Yorkshire